Recently, various kinds of cards such as ID cards, credit cards, security cards, members cards, cash cards and the like have become available for identification of individuals engaged in dealings. These cards are all standardized to have the same size for example for the convenience of users carrying various cards with them. In view of this, there is a plan in progress for equalizing the size of e.g. driver's licenses to the above standardized size. Further, there is also a plan to equalize the size of employee identification cards issued by companies or student identification cards issued by schools to the above standardized size.
In currently available credit cards and cash cards, part of the symbols and letters carrying information should be physically raised from the card surface by embossing for example. To this end, those cards are formed by a material made of polyethylene for example and having a large thickness. However, in cards such as a prepaid card or a telephone card where magnetized information alone is important for its function, the card thickness is rendered rather small.
As for cards formed by a currently rather thick card material, it is possible that they will also be formed by a thin card material like in e.g. a telephone card for the purposes of rendering them much easier to carry.
In cards used for identifying individuals or proving the background of individuals, it is necessary to render each card to carry individual information. As for ID cards, driver's licenses, employee identification cards or student identification cards, each card needs to carry a photograph of the owner's face. Therefore, printing on these cards cannot be performed by a printing machine designed for impressing a same print on a large lot basis.
Color printing techniques performed in accordance with electronic information of color images includes a technique in which a sublimation type ink ribbon is used, and printing operations are performed by using a thermal printhead to impress yellow, magenta and cyanine, and if necessary black, in this order in an overlapping manner. (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 61-43871, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 60-5856 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-11370 for example.) According to such a technique, various color images are properly printed by changing the color image information. (Hereinafter, the above colors may be merely referred to as Y, M, C and B, respectively.)
However, according to the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 61-43871 or Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 60-5856, color printing is possible for thin sheets but not for cards. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-11370 touches upon the idea of impressing a color print on cards. However, this document completely fails to disclose specific arrangements about a successive card feed mechanism, a card retaining mechanism during the printing operation, a card discharge mechanism after the printing operations and the like. These mechanisms are essential in practice for constructing a printer impressing color prints on cards. Therefore, without them, it is utterly impossible to put the above-mentioned idea into practice. It is also impossible to properly impress a color print on various cards differing in thickness as described above.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a card printer properly impressing a color print on various cards differing in thickness and material.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a card printer impressing a color print substantially on an entire surface of cards, and a method of printing on cards using the same printer.